Budget 2025: Māori educators say boost won't fix poor school buildings

RNZ News

23-05-2025

Co-chair of Te Rūnanga Nui Rāwiri Wright.
Photo:
Te Rawhitiroa Bosch
Kura Kaupapa Māori say Budget 2025 will fail to address their longstanding concerns around substandard school properties.
Māori Medium schools received funding in the Budget for approximately 50 new teaching spaces.
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa said at present, close to 40 Kura Kaupapa Māori remain on the Ministry of Education's property backlog list.
Co-chair of Te Rūnanga Nui Rāwiri Wright said dividing this limited funding across all Māori-medium settings - including Māori immersion units in mainstream schools - will leave kura with next to nothing.
"We are being kept in the dark. There is no clear breakdown of how this funding will be allocated, no equity in the process, and certainly no commitment to a genuine Treaty-based partnership. Meanwhile, our whānau continue to send their tamariki to kura that are falling apart.
"This is not a genuine solution. It's yet another example of the Crown's ongoing failure to prioritise Kura Kaupapa Māori," Wright said.
Te Rūnanga Nui called on the government to implement a long-term, ring-fenced investment plan of $1.25 billion over five years - $250 million annually - dedicated to Kura Kaupapa Māori property development.
Over the past five years, the Ministry of Education has allocated less than 3 percent of its property budget to Kura Kaupapa, highlighting a significant underinvestment in this area, Te Rūnanga said in a statement.
"Te Aho Matua defines our kura. Our buildings must reflect the values, identity, and excellence of our tamariki," Wright said.
Chief executive Hohepa Campbell said this is why Kura Kaupapa Māori lodged an urgent claim with the Waitangi Tribunal.
"The Tribunal has since confirmed what we have been saying for years-that the Crown has systematically underinvested in our kura and failed to implement dedicated policy or adequate funding to support our kaupapa," he said.
During the hearings for the claim, Tribunal members visited Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna in Wellington and were visibly shocked at the substandard facilities tamariki are expected to learn in, Campbell said.
In its closing arguments, even the Crown acknowledged that kura are under-resourced and that
historical issues
demand significant investment.
The report found the
Crown had breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi
by failing to develop bespoke policies and investment strategies to address the specific needs of Kura Kaupapa Māori.
The Budget set aside
more than $36 million
over four years for a Māori Education Package, which included funding for five components:
However, this package was funded by reprioritising funding from other initiatives,
including disestablishing
the Wharekura Expert Teachers programme and disestablishing roles for Resource Teachers of Māori, among other repriorritised funding initiatives.
Te Rūnanga Nui said they were appalled by the funding cut to expert wharekura teachers.
"This decision undermines the very heart of quality wharekura secondary education. Our tamariki deserve access to specialist teachers who can provide high-level Te Aho Matua and NCEA curriculum expertise. Cutting this support is not only shortsighted - it is negligent," their statement read.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the wider investment in education is the most significant investment in learning support in a generation.
"Backed by a social investment lens, this is a seismic shift in how we support learning needs in New Zealand. We're deliberately prioritising early intervention, investing in what works and directly tackling long-standing inequities in the system."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter
curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.